The journey of the Indian women's cricket team in the ongoing World Cup has been a very satisfactory one so far.

Team
India is very proudly leading the tally with 6 points closely
followed by Australia. Australia's run rate is slightly lower than
India's at +0.724 as they firmly stand at number two with team
India leading with a run rate of +1.110 at number one.

In
Focus

However,
at this stage, this really does not matter as its still early days
into the tournament. Both India and Australia have won their initial
matches. Team India at the moment should invariably be looking to win
their next match by all means against Sri Lanka.

The
chances of India winning against Sri Lanka are bright by simply
relying on the fact that the Lankans have lost all their three played
matches so far and stand at the bottom end of the table (Sri Lanka
6th and Pakistan at 7th). If India win against Sri Lanka, then they
will become table toppers with 8 points. This equation would become
favourable for India in outperforming New Zealand or South Africa.

Honestly,
the encounters of team India against New Zealand and Australia will
prove to be real challenges also determining their prospects in the
World Cup. Although losing to New Zealand or Australia will not force
India out of the tournament, but still would halt their victory
march. A lot is dependent on the outcome of the following five
crucial encounters:

1)
England vs South Africa on 5/7/2017

2)
England vs Australia on 9/7/2017

3)
England vs New Zealand on 12/7/2017

4)
Australia vs South Africa on 15/07/2017

Now
again, if we consider the possibilities of England, it appears that
it will be almost impossible for them to beat South Africa, Australia
and New Zealand.

Likewise,
New Zealand have already lost one match (out of three played) and any
further damage will make it very difficult for them to recover.
Honestly, they do not stand much chance against South Africa.

Given
the outstanding performance that Team India has displayed so far, I
strongly believe that they can, of course with a little bit of luck,
beat New Zealand as well.

So,
the remaining challenge will be form South Africa and Australia, both
teams who are better in terms of batting, bowling and fielding when
compared to India.

Here
again, the rain Gods might also play a decisive role. In case,
Australia and South Africa land in a situation where they have to
share a point each for a no result, it will be a big boost for India.
Although the opposite could also hamper India's chances.
Nevertheless, India is now a confident outfit with inflated morals.
With a bit of luck, the form of prime batswomen, improvement in
fielding and the hard work put in by our bowlers, our girls can
compete well.

Our
bowlers have been really performing well especially Ekta Bisht, who
proved her mettle by taking 5 wickets against Pakistan on Sunday with
an impressive economy rate of 1.88, duly supported by other bowlers.
Also, Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Shikha Verma have the guts
to turn the tables under any given situation. They

have
also shown considerable improvement in their fielding and more
importantly the Indian girls are playing as one cohesive unit
supporting each other in a very effective manner.

Right
now, the
team's immediate
concern should
be
the performance of Smriti Mandhana
who got out cheaply against Pakistan, although
she has
played
a vital role in almost every match of
the tournament so far.
Also, the teams
from the
Indian
subcontinent
sometimes have
the knack of being inconsistent.
But overall, Team India should
easily
beat
Sri
Lanka, further cementing
their position in
the World Cup.

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